Chapter 152 Decisive Blow [The Crypt - Part XXII]

[N/A: Second to last battle chapter, next one will be the last one (including Freya). Pfiuu this has been long for me and complicated but here goes. The little crypt arc is about to end. This scene takes place right after the end of chapter 150].

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- POV General -

Before the Empress got bitten by the Fox or ripped the head off the snake, the other fight was also about to get intense. Since the beginning, Thorunn had been injured but was in the care of Caipy and Nina while everyone else was still facing the griffin. It had had an eye gouged by Ralph and a huge gash in the back made by Emilia while the two women had wanted to avenge their friend.

The two young women had been hit by the Demon's black flames but had ignored the pain to hurt it to their advantage. Fortunately, the griffin's fire was not like Nixia's and seemed rather normal, allowing Ralph and Emilia to escape without ending up in ashes. Each one had the red and burned legs but it was necessary more so that they did not think even once to give up.

The creature was in bad shape and although no attack had managed to put its life directly in danger, the ones it had suffered always weakened it a little more. Thorunn, Nixia, Naia, and Luna's group attack had hit it hard, helping to weaken it even more. However, the Commanders had already used up a lot of their mana and had to be careful not to deplete it even if the fight wasn't over.

Thus, the 15 soldiers still able to fight, were advancing with the determination not to drag the confrontation out any longer. The Demon in front of them was staggering slightly as it could no longer see properly and was trying to locate its enemies. It was then Nixia the young lamia woman, who started the fight by striking first in defiance. Her spears of flame twirled in her hands before she threw them.

"Use its blind spots to hit it where it least expects it and let's take advantage of our numbers to string together attacks."

"Nixia is right, if we want to be able to have it all together, we have to give it our all one last time !"

As the black-scaled lamia's spears hit their target, she had spoken for the Lieutenants, followed by Luna. Just as they finished their words, the shrill cry of the griffin reached their ears. Without saying anything more, with a nod, the Commanders rushed towards the beast followed by their subordinates. The first to arrive were obviously Luna and her Lieutenant Ash as they were the fastest.

The half-human panther was almost as fast as her lightning and was now under the griffin's body, under its belly. Once again, her element was coming out of her hands and the lightning she was handling, crackled in her palms like the sound of a thousand birds. As Luna raised her hands, her hundreds of yellow bolts of lightning struck the creature sending continuous shocks through it.

"Ash !"

"Yes Commander !"

While she was busy controlling her mana to ensure a steady stream of lightning, Ash the leopard half-human, pulled out his daggers and began to slice. Of course, none of her wounds were fatal, but it was enough to lower the griffin's HPs. Ash was only level 17 at the moment and each blow required a huge amount of strength for him to successfully wound this much stronger Demon.

Alone, it would have taken him hours to kill it, not to mention the fact that the beast would not have let him and killed him in an instant. However, alone they were nothing but together they were everything and even the smallest damage, multiplied could change everything. Luna's Lieutenant, was giving it all he had as he dug his blades into the fur as many times as he could.

Despite the difference in level between the young woman with lightning and the Demon, it was wracked by violent spasms that its body automatically felt. Luna was not powerful enough to paralyze it but her level 25 allowed her to hold it back. The others finally arrived and so a flurry of attacks came down on the creature. From a distance, it looked like total chaos, but in reality, everyone knew what they had to do.

"Kurumi !"

"Yes !"

Nixia and Naia had called out their Lieutenant's name at the same time as they came within several feet of the griffin almost being immobilized by Luna. It was still as large as ever but no one really had time to be impressed as it was already starting to move faster. At the signal of her Commanders, the pink haired elf instead of using her stone armor defense, hit the ground with the palm of her hands.

Suddenly, stone spikes rose from the ground just below the Demon's belly to crash against its skin and fur. At the same time, a cloud of fire arrows created by Naia followed by a salvo of Nixia's black flame spears, came down on it from all sides. Huge explosions sounded and as Luna walked away exhausted, the griffin was overwhelmed by the attacks.

There was a smell of burnt skin mixed with the blood and smoke that now surrounded the entire beast. The Elysium warriors could see its silhouette waving in the cloud as the flames in its body grew even more intense. Suddenly, with a shriek and a broad sweep of its wings, the smoke dissipated and a gust of wind blew it away. At that moment, the griffin appeared and along with it, a multitude of black fireballs.

Without even paying attention to who was around it, the wounded Demon in its proud and weakened state spun around, launching its attacks everywhere. Once again, a rain of attacks fell on the soldiers who were doing the best they could to protect themselves. Even Lynn and Inferno, who was further away, could feel the heat of the fire and the hot, violent breaths that followed.

"Look out, get back !"

A little further away, Lieutenant Zak, Liz, and Leon were in a fighting stance as suddenly a huge fireball fell on them. At that moment, an explosion shattered near them as the three warriors did what they could to protect themselves. Leon the Lieutenant of Thorunn, was blowing a much less powerful wind from his hands while Liz was cracking her whip and destroying the projectiles.

Unfortunately, the griffin's attacks were fast, explosive, and above all, very dangerous. No matter how hard the Lieutenants did, they found themselves retreating further and further away from their respective Commander. The ground was shattering and little by little, the bear Zak, the half-human tiger Liz and the kobold Leon were being hit as well.

A huge burnt stone had crashed against Zak's side, another one had mowed down the kobold's legs and the last one was hitting Liz right in the temple. In only a few seconds, the Lieutenant of Emilia, Ralph and Thorunn found themselves on the ground. It was the total chaos and the Demon which had returned in a mad rage, burned and burst all around it. It was necessary to find a solution because for the moment, nobody could do anything.

Seeing the distress of the three soldiers, Persea, who was already manipulating her brambles to protect herself, extended an arm in their direction to make a wall appear in front of them. The dryad was not particularly as specialized as the others in combat but she manipulated her element as easily as her own body. So far Persea had been the one to use her mana the most, but this time she was determined to reach her limits.

As one of the Commander of the Guardians section charged with protecting the forest, the dryad had learned to control her brambles to perfection. She was busy protecting herself and those she could, but she had to strike back, and fast. Even the Commanders were starting to get overexerted, unable to get close to this mad beast. In the cacophony of explosions, Persea raised her voice, shouting as loud as she could.

"Itham, when I tell you, you're going to have to create the strongest and highest walls you can make to surround this Demon. I know I'm asking a lot of you, but only a few seconds are enough, we'll take care of the rest !"

"Yes Commander, I will do my best !!"

The elf Lieutenant of the dryad and the young butterfly woman, knew he had an important role to play and was willing to do anything to succeed. Nodding at his answer, Persea looked around for her friends while manipulating her brambles.

"Ynir, prepare your magic I think we need to test our illusion prison ! Commanders, Lieutenants ! Formation for combined air attacks ! Now !"

At her words, despite the chaos that reigned and the wounded and crazed beasts that ran amok, all heads turned to the dryad. She had a more than serious look on her face and her hands were shaking as her mana had almost run out. Persea knew she couldn't hold out much longer and had launched for the first time one of the group attacks prepared during their training.

"YES !"

At that moment, everyone was moving all around, getting closer to the dryad while being careful not to get blown up on the way. Nixia was spinning her spears to break the rocks and zigzagged with ease with her snake tail between each fire projectile. Emilia, Naia, Ralph and Luna were doing the same thing using their strength, agility or speed while Trioa was splitting the air to get closer as well.

Seeing that even the Lieutenants were arriving, in a huge effort, Persea would make all those walls disappear in one fell swoop, before turning to her Lieutenant and Ynir. Both were ready and as the dryad nodded, both knew exactly what they had to do.

"Ynir ! Itham ! Now !"

Without further questioning, Itham, who at the moment was the only one who could create walls, concentrated like never before. Mana was racing through his body as he used up all the mana he had left, being careful not to use it all up. Larger than usual wooden walls enclosed the griffin who didn't understand what was going on. It would only take a few seconds for it to free itself so Ynir acted quickly.

Flying as fast as her little wings could go, it was her turn to use her full element. A huge fog rose above the creature disturbing it for a moment as the young butterfly woman filled the wooden cage with her magic. A huge amount of illusory particles poured out and little by little the griffin felt itself wavering.

"Our turn ! Persea !"

Naia had been watching the process and just like the other soldiers, she knew that it was up to them to manage the rest while Ynir gave everything she could to immobilize the Demon as much as possible. All the warriors were running towards the dryad who was also drawing on her strength without a word as two huge brambles came out of the ground and ran straight at the griffin...that was the signal.

As these plants seemed to have come to life, the Elysium warriors on the ground jumped all together on these brambles that passed in front of them at full speed. All on top like a rollercoaster, they were now running towards the griffin followed by Trioa and Nella who were flying by their side. They had only a few seconds left before they reached their target but suddenly, Leon the kobold's foot slipped.

He hadn't held on well and although they had all practiced these moves before, the panic, stress and situation made it quite different. His hands were shaking and at the speed the brambles were going, he was being propelled backwards. Leon was the last one and no one noticed that he was falling and found himself desperately trying to hang on.

Falling from this height and at this speed would guarantee him several broken bones and maybe even worse. The young Lieutenant knew this and was doing everything he could not to ruin this training, but to no avail. As the kobold went backwards, closing his eyes in fear of the impact, a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed his. He didn't know who had managed to save him and as he opened his eyes, a voice he knew well rose up in front of him.

"Well it looks like I'm just in time !"

"Co-commander !"

"it's me haha~"

In front of Leon was Thorunn who had climbed up the bramble and caught him at the last moment, lifting him up with tremendous force. The young vampire's blonde hair was flying in the wind and her smile revealing her sharp canines was at that moment a blessing to this Lieutenant who had been very afraid. Without saying another word, Thorunn let go of her hand as she regained her seriousness.

"Now !! G-Go...quickly !"

They had all arrived above the griffin several meters above the ground and Persea who was no longer holding on was screaming as she felt herself getting weaker. At that moment, all the warriors of Elysium jumped as one, running straight at the Demon who had just broken the walls of weight that surrounded it. Seeing that everyone had jumped, the brambles suddenly disappeared as Persea fell to her knees exhausted and weakened.

"AAAAAAAAAH !!!"

From a distance, 13 people could be seen speeding from the sky at a wounded creature made of black fire, feathers and fur. Lightning crackled, fists and whips snapped, magic was incanted, and weapons tingled as everyone prepared to launch one last decisive attack. Trioa and Nella, on the other hand, charged forward with a determination just as strong as the others.

Most of the soldiers had almost no mana left, were injured or had no strength left, so this attack would be the last. Hearts were pounding, hands were clammy and shaking, but ignoring the fear, the exhaustion, the terrifying aura of the Demon as it drew closer, the warriors of Elysium became one.

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FULL STATUS

Name : Freya / L??????

Age : 0 years old / Mentally : 25 years old

Sex : Female

Course: Ice Demon Wolf of Chaos - Adult

Race : Imperial Demon

Unique title (locked): ???? - 10% [ To unlock it, the host must reach 100% ]

Titles : Blessed by Titania, Goddess of endless Chaos and eternal frozen Hell (crossed)

Dragon tamer

Ruthless slayer

Empress of the three colors (crossed)

Level : 40/70

Exp needed for next level: 0 / 41 000

HP : 41 600 / 150 000 MP : 42 610 / 75 000. BLOOD : 70 / 100

Strength: 560

Defense : 560

Agility : 566

Endurance: 563

Speed : 562

Intelligence: 560

Charisma: 500 (imperial she-wolf)

Attribute points to allocate : 0

Married to : Gaya

Daughter : Shiro

Empire (menu)

Subordinates: 1239

Humans killed: 153

Souls: 2/3

Elements: Ice / Chaos

Skills (all):

Attack - Demon Claws (Lvl 5)

- Bite of hell (Lvl 6)

- Infernal ice spikes (Lvl 6)

- Fighting techniques (Lvl max)

- Mastery of the katana (lvl max)

- Demonic Empress aura (lvl 6)

Defense - Ice demon wall (Lvl 6)

- Demonic Cloak (lvl 5)

Pain Resistance (lvl 5)

Attack/Defense - Domain of the Ice Empress "frozen wrath" (lvl 2) - (under condition)

Others - Humanoid form

Demonic form (linked to the title so incomplete) - 10%.

- Ice creation (Lvl 6)

- Storage of chaos (Lvl 4)

- Devouring Chaos (Lvl 5)

- L??????'s Threads of Blood (lvl 1)

- Analysis

- Second soul (Lvl max) - unique

- Telepathy